fibula with a cracking sound that echoed around the quiet area. Another got a punch to the face that seemed to break his jaw and cheekbone, and the last was punched in the throat.
The orderly that had followed her outside had spun back around and returned to the safety of the center in order to get reinforcements.
That’s when, screaming like she was on fire, Stevie ran for her life, so oblivious to everything around her, she didn’t even see Charlie and Max standing there, watching her. She just took off running. And, with the tiger blood flowing through her veins, she hit forty miles per hour pretty damn quickly.
Max watched their panic-riddled sister tear off across the front lawn and hit the road that would lead out to the main highway. “Guess the doc told her we’d been here.” Then she laughed because, well . . . it was kind of funny. “Look at her go! I think sparks are coming off her feet.”
“Come on,” Charlie ordered Max, tossing the map off the SUV hood. “We have to catch her.”
They scrambled into the SUV and sped after their sister, heading down the long road that led to and from the clinic. On both sides were thick forests.
“If she goes into the woods—”
“She’s panicking,” Charlie reminded Max. “She’s just gonna run until she can’t anymore.”
“She’s so fast.”
“In short bursts. She has no stamina.” Not an insult, just reality. Again, it was the tiger in her. The wolf and honey badger in Charlie meant she could trot for hours. Not that she ever did. Why bother when she could just as easily rent a car?
Max suddenly hit the brakes and Charlie let out a relieved breath when she saw her baby sister standing in the middle of the road, taking in deep gulps of air and sobbing.
“I’ll get her.” Charlie opened her door. “And when I bring her back, you be nice!” she warned.
“I’m always nice!” Max laughed.
“Shut up.”
Charlie walked around the car and over to her baby sister’s side, but she didn’t touch Stevie. She didn’t put her arms around her and hug her. That was just a quick way to get her face torn off.
“Stevie.” She said her sister’s name flatly, with authority; her voice low. “Stevie,” she repeated.
Blinking away tears, Stevie straightened her back and focused on Charlie.
“Charlie?”
“Hey, bubs.”
“Charlie!” Now Stevie was in her arms, hugging her tight, and Charlie hugged her back because she was no longer worried about getting her face ripped off.
“You didn’t leave me. You didn’t leave me,” she chanted.
“Of course we didn’t. We were just trying to find a way to get to you without the staff knowing.” She stroked Stevie’s hair. She’d started dyeing it a nice, safe blond. Charlie kept hers brown, and Max dyed hers any color she was in the mood to see for a few weeks or months. They did this to avoid the questions. So many questions about their hair.
“How bad is it?” Charlie asked.
Swallowing, Stevie took a step back, her gaze focused on the trees behind Charlie’s head.
Charlie knew that look.
“Is anyone dead?” Charlie now asked, worried about her sister’s answer.
“No! No.” Her voice lowered even more. “No.” Stevie cleared her throat. “Someone may have lost an eye, though.”
“Okay.” Charlie grabbed her sister’s arm and quickly led her to the SUV, pushing her into the backseat and getting in beside her.
“Go, Max.”
The car took off and Charlie held her baby sister’s hand and calmly spoke to her. “Deep breath in. Deep breath out. In. Out. Close your eyes and just focus on the engine sounds. The road beneath the wheels. The air against the car.”
“Your whining against my nerves,” Max joked from the front seat.
Stevie’s gold eyes popped open and she rammed the flat of her hand against the back of Max’s seat.
“Hey!” Max barked.
“Do you know what I’ve been through?” Stevie yelled. “Do you have any concept?”
“Keep yelling at me, and I’ll give you something to really whine about.”
Unable to stand another second, Charlie slapped her hands together several times and yelped, “That is enough! We don’t have time for you two psychotic females to be bickering like we’re still in grade school!”
“Wait,” Stevie said, the anger in her voice gone, unfortunately replaced by hysteria. “Do you hear that?”
“Stevie, you need to—”
“No. Listen.”
Charlie did . . . and she heard it too.
“Is that a chopper?”
As soon as Charlie asked the question, the military-type chopper charged past them, so close, Charlie was surprised it didn’t hit the roof of the car.
Max slowed to a stop.
The chopper turned and came back, hovering about fifty feet away.
“Dude!” Max demanded, trying to look back at Stevie over her seat. “What kind of mental hospital did you go to?”
* * *
The target and her sisters waited in the SUV.
“Stay here,” he ordered the pilot. “Give them a minute to figure out what’s about to happen.”
“Got it.”
The original plan had been to take the target in the clinic, but he’d just been heading toward the building when she’d run out, hysterically screaming. He’d immediately gone back to the copter. Especially when he realized the two older sisters were still alive.
His orders had been painfully simple. Pick up the target and bring her to the safe house. Two other teams had been dispatched to take out the troublesome older sisters so they couldn’t get in the way. Apparently they had a reputation that had his clients concerned. But somehow those two had gotten away from full tactical teams. He still wasn’t sure how they’d managed that.
The sister on the driver’s side eased out and headed toward the back of the SUV.
“Want me to take her out?”
“No,” he replied immediately. “We keep them alive until we have the target. They’ll keep her pliable.”
“She’s probably
